Forget Me Not
by Lady Blackpearl1
Summary: No story ever really ends, does it?
1. The Snow Was Falling

Author's Note: After years of loving this game, I'm finally making a fanfic. *^_^* Yay. I'm not sure where my ideas for this are coming from, they just... are. So no promises on what's going to happen, eh? All I know is that this is going to be a serious story, and I'm going to try and avoid any romance between characters, but if the story wants to go that way, it will. I'm just the medium for this to go through, really.  
  
Well, then. Enjoy, and please review and let me know what you think so far.  
  
  
  
The snow was falling softly outside the clouded windows of the newly furnished Seventh Heaven bar. It always did this time of the year. Cloud was having trouble getting used to it, truthfully. Most of his adult life he'd lived in the seasonless, nightless, and dayless world of the Midgar plate. To watch the snow as it fluttered down in heavy, wet dove feathers, he felt an eerie chill run up his spine. It'd been five years now, five winters he'd watched come in their white cloaks of cold beauty, only to melt away to muddy, earthy, and equally beautiful spring. Today marked the first snow of the year. Perhaps it was a stroke of good fortune he'd decided to come early than he'd needed to. He hated to think what the roads would look like in the morning if this drift decided to stay around that long.  
  
Tifa was there, of course, rattling around behind the counter, mixing the coffee she'd offered and he'd accepted. She still had her apron tied over her white sweater and jeans, one he'd gotten her for her birthday that year. The little bar would be open for business a few hours longer, before any remaining patrons were asked to leave and the others would start arriving, breathing in clouds and relishing the warmth of the little establishment. It happened that way every year. Hugs, smiles, and greetings would go up all around, and the bar would fill with familiar voices, catching up on each otherÕs lives and reliving old memories of their adventures together. It would last deep into the night, and through the rest of the weekend. He'd smile through it all, and still feel so empty inside. He both loved and loathed the anniversary meeting. Perhaps this silent contemplation was the reason Tifa was looked at him with her head cocked to the side, eyes asking him what was on his mind.  
  
"They'll be getting here soon," she said, breaking the uncomfortable quiet with her soft smile. "I can't wait to see everyone. I know we meet every year, but there's so much that can happen during that time."  
  
"Mmm." Cloud acknowledged the statement with a nod, taking the cup of steaming coffee she'd placed before him and blowing the hot mist from the top. "They're all changing, but they're still the same."  
  
"Exactly. It's kind of comforting." Tifa hopped up to sit on the counter, facing the same way he was. There was a large shelf of drinks behind the bar, with glass doors, gold shelves, and a mirror at the back. Cloud usually found himself watching his reflection as it moved with him, obscured here and there by the wine and whiskey bottles and their long throats. He could also tell that Tifa did the exact same thing, watching his reflection as well as her own as she sat there, idly swinging her feet.   
  
"It's hard to believe it's been five years already."  
  
Tifa nodded, dark eyes dancing as they caught her infectious smile. "I can't believe it either. It feels like it was only a little while ago. I don't think that feeling will ever fade, though. It sure was a once-in-a-lifetime experience."  
  
"Hard to imagine that it's over." He folded his fingers in front of him, brow knitted in thought once more. "I remember how after everything had happened and the Meteor had gone, we wandered around for days, waiting for the next thing to come up. It felt wrong for it all to be over. It was so awkward letting go of it, everyone parting and going their separate ways, one by one."  
  
"But we still see each other," she piped in. "Kind of like we have a string tied to each one of us. We can't avoid each other. It's a warm feeling, running into them on the street, and seeing them smiling and enjoying the peace. I don't know, though... Lately it's been feeling kind of... hollow."  
  
"How do you mean?"  
  
"Well, say, when I run into Yuffie at a Materia shop in Kalm or see Cid and Shera at the chocobo farm, even when I see Barret when he stops by after work and we talk." Tifa lifted her cup of milk-lightened coffee to her lips, eyelids falling low over burgundy eyes. "There's this sort of empty feeling inside me. I don't know whether it's an absence of our quest or just a lack of intimacy that used to be there, but I feel like something's missing. I just don't know what."  
  
Cloud looked down at his own cup of coffee, fully aware of what her words didn't say, what she didn't seem to want to accept. As he watched the steam rise in a soft cloud of warmth, a flurry of rose petals crossed his mental vision. The sweet scent of flowers, the cool smell of makou, a spray of brown hair and beautiful green eyes. He closed his eyes, and his lips dropped a single syllable into the air.  
  
"Her."  
  
Tifa set her mug down a bit too harshly, causing Cloud to jerk up from his stupor. He looked over at her, watching how her hand tightened around the cup, and the other folded over itself in a self-restraining fist. She was shaking, from her arms up into her shoulders. Cloud raised a hand, thought again, and decided it wasn't right to touch her.  
  
"Cloud... I thought we made a deal. I thought we said..."  
  
"We wouldn't dwell on it," he gave in with a sigh. "I know, but I don't think it's something we can control any longer. Our voices made that pact, but our hearts didnÕt. We can't deny what our hearts are saying."  
  
"And what's that?" Tifa's voice was beginning to quiver, and he knew she was on the verge of tears.  
  
"We... We miss her, Tifa. Both of us. All of us. We miss her."  
  
Tifa pushed herself from the bar, landing with her back still to her friend. She slowly lifted her coffee once more to her lips, then placed the empty mug in the sink. She then leaned on the counter, staring at her reflection. Cloud could see one eye sparkled with unshed tears between two bottles of white wine.  
  
"What are you saying we should do?" she asked.  
  
"Tonight we're going to stop ignoring the fact that she isn't here with us and she should be. Tonight we're going to talk about her, use her name, and we're not going to run away from this. We need to stop losing ourselves in our memories and start thinking about how to cope." He could see her force her eyes closed against a river of tears that begged to flow. "Tifa... We need to heal."  
  
"I hate how you can say that."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You... You were the closest to her. You met her and took care of her, and she you. You were there when she..." Her words trailed off, but their implication needed no detail. "You carried her, you let her go into the darkness. You knew her the longest of all of us, and yet you're telling me to heal. You were the most hurt and I'm the one crying. Why? Why does it happen this way?"  
  
"I don't know, Tifa." Cloud rested his head against his arms, staring down at his boots. "I envy your tears. I wish I could cry for her."  
  
There was no trace left of anger in her fingers as Tifa cupped one of Cloud's hands in two of her own. Her thumbs rubbed his palm gently in lieu of words she couldn't seem to find.  
  
  
  
In the morning, she began tending the flowers in the garden. From the time the light began until the time the light was beginning to fade, it was where she would be found, nursing the perfumed blooms with her blue, formless hands and watering the ground with tears void of emotion. She harnessed the way the spirit would well up within her when she knelt and murmured words in a forgotten language, then spread that power about her to every living thing that inhabited the little garden. She kept it all alive, just as its owner would have had he still lived.   
  
Not that she was one to ponder mortality. The only proof of her still having a conscious existence was this garden and its flowers. She at times even wondered about her purpose and whether she was ever real. Many times sheÕd gone to the Stream, stood on its banks, and contemplated joining the souls who were rushing to be reborn as plants, animals, and the occasional human. SheÕd drift closer, then the visions would come. People she knew, but couldnÕt name. Two girls, four men, and two furry creaturesÉ Specifically, those eerie, blue eyes. She would step back and remember her reason for still existing.  
She wanted them to see the garden.  
  
She cupped a tigerlily, striped with pink and dotted with touches of black, and led its head up to the sunlight that poured through the glass panes that covered the roof. Her gaze followed, up to watch as crystals of snow floated down, landing and puddling upon the glass. Without the wind or moisture, of the weather outside, the small haven was safe from the cold, and stayed spring-like all year long. This was exceptionally good for the flowers, as they lived long through the seasons, and comforting for the animals whoÕd taken refuge here to wait out the cold weather. Three frogs skimmed through the pond at the center of the garden, and five rabbits made their home beneath the peach tree. Even one lone doe grazed on the grass between the rosebushes. Here, every being was at peace, especially the gardener.  
  
Today, however, the peace would be short-lived. As soon as all the flowers were watered and a lost frog was returned to the pond, another being appeared. The animals seemed unaware, but the gardener was taken aback by the new appearance. It was another formless one, with a voice familiar and distinctly female.  
  
"The Mother is calling for you, Little One," she said, hovering by one of the fruitless trees.  
  
"She calls for me? But why?"  
  
"I know not, Little One, I do not question her but only do her bidding."  
  
"Alright then. I shall come."  
  
With a soft shimmer not unlike sunlight through rain, the two beings vanished from the peaceful garden, leaving the animals and plants to carry on in silence. 


	2. The Friends Were Gathering

Barret was the first of the others to arrive, understandably. He lived and worked in town, a strategist for the city security system. Soon as he'd given Cloud and Tifa the news of his employment, both had agreed a better man couldn't have been chosen. The citizens could feel safe from a corporate governmental take-over like ShinRa ever happening again with Barret on the job. He knew how to shoot down anyone who got too big of ideas, in more ways than one.  
  
The man that Cloud had gotten a job proposal from about six years prior was the kind that hardly anyone dared to disrespect. The man that lumbered in the door of the Seventh Heaven, girl of 12 in tow, commanded respect without a word. His clothes looked more official and well kept than previous, but there was still that rough, unpredictable edge to him that kept all his inferiors in line. That visage, of course, melted away when his eyes befell his friends. He moved over to Cloud and took the younger man's hand, shaking it heartily.  
  
"Look who's here already! Ain't used to yo' spiky ass showin' up early!"  
  
"Good to see you too, Barret." The men laughed and patted each other on the back in the form of a hug. After an exchange of smiles, Barret moved on to Tifa, greeting her with a hug tight enough that anyone who didn't see him as a big teddy bear would worry over. Tifa squeezed back as hard as she could, laughing. Cloud was glad to see a smile on her face again. After all, the subject that had been lingering in the air earlier had made her look rather sad.  
  
While the others exchanged greetings, Cloud took the moment to look at Marlene. She was growing up bit by bit each year, and now was looking around the bar, no doubt comparing it to the one she'd known as a little girl. She was a good several inches taller than she was the last time Cloud had seen her, and had her brown hair cropped at her chin, wide glasses propped on a freckled nose. She smiled at him shyly.  
  
"Hey there," he said. "How's school going, kiddo?"  
  
"Good. I'm going into seventh grade next semester. The school decided to move me up."  
  
"That's great!" Cloud smiled, and the girl blushed a little. "Your father must be really proud of you."  
  
"Yeah... I'm kind of nervous, though."  
  
"I'm sure you'll be fine. It's hard, but you're a smart and cute girl."  
  
She turned red and nodded. Barret laughed loudly at that, taking a seat up on a barstool. "Hey hey, you stop makin' my daughter blush an' get yo' self over here, Strife. Gotta keep me updated on the monster killin'."  
  
Cloud laughed and complied, leaving Marlene to discuss her grade transition with Tifa, who seemed to fill in as a substitute mother whenever the girl was around. Barret helped himself to the contents of a whiskey bottle on the counter. He then turned to Cloud, a brow quirked. "So, how goes it, mister monster exterminator?"  
  
"We're getting pretty close to getting this area done, actually." Cloud assisted in emptying the bottle, taking a shot himself. "The Nibelheim section reported completion, and I'll be going there pretty soon to take a look myself. The process is going to take a while before we're rid of all the monsters, though. We can only cover one ten-mile radius at a time."  
  
The big man sighed and drained another shot of whiskey. "It'll be good when folks can jus' walk where they wanna go. Shit... It's funny, ain't it? We spend half our lives fightin' the damn ShinRa, and the rest cleaning up their goddamn mess. Poetic justice my ass."  
  
Cloud nodded and glanced over to Tifa and Marlene, who'd moved to a corner table and were looking over one of the homework assignments the girl had brought with her. Barret lowered his voice a bit and leaned over.  
  
"Sorry I had t' bring her. The sitter cancelled and I ain't used to this peaceful stuff 'nough to leave her by herself."  
  
"No, I'm glad you brought her. We're going to be talking about something tonight I think she can relate to... More than even our other companions."  
  
"You... dun' mean..."  
  
"We have to, Barret. I don't want anyone to get upset either, but we can't just walk around pretending to forget. It doesn't do her justice."  
  
"Much as ya sound like a self-help book, I guess yo' right." Barret heaved a large breath and rubbed his forehead with one hand. "If Tifa's alright with it, I am too."  
  
Cloud opened his mouth to say something else, but was distracted by the presence of a very chilly breeze as Yuffie and Nanaki made their way into the establishment. He patted Barret on the shoulder, then headed over to the new arrivals and was promptly hug-tackled by the ninja girl.  
  
  
  
In the Heart, there was very little and yet so much to see. Colors swirled everywhere, devoid of form, making patterns not unlike an abstract watercolor painting. Nothing was on any physical plane here. It simply existed. This, of course was the prime environment for those shapeless beings that moved about the earth unnoticed. There were only several hundred who'd been chosen to take this form, and for what reason none but the Mother knew. Typically, there was no questioning the Mother's motives. She did what she did. There was no reason to look further into anything that she wished, as no one had the power to resist her. No one asked why. Everyone just did as they were told.  
  
This was the reason that the Little One stood out so prominently. She had a strong resolve even in her bodiless state, and was always questioning, wondering, pushing for more information on why she was where she was and what she was to do. The others held her at a distance out of both disgust and reverence. She was strong to be able to look past the Mother's orders and into the point behind them, but she was stupid for doing so as frequently as she did. The Mother didn't appreciate it.  
  
So, when the Little One was summoned, it was considered quite an event. Swirls of electric blue made their way into the Heart and floated in from here and there, babbling in their breathy, wraith-like voices about the Mother's orders and how the Little One was going to be turned out this time. Who would tend the garden in her absence, if so? Would the Mother order it neglected? By the time the Little One arrived, the tension and confusion had built enough that the other entities were nearly in a tizzy with anxiousness over when the Mother would come and announce her decision. The Little One only glided around idly, unperturbed by the gossiping beings about her.  
  
The Mother faded into existence not much later. In contrast to the small, cerulean sparkles that hovered around, the Mother existed as a large, red glow, warm in some aspects, and hot to the point of violence in others. If anything, the Mother was the perfect symbol for the organ that the area was named after.  
  
The Little One had been here numerous times, but this was the first time she'd faced the Mother on her own account. She never actually been called upon before, and this of course made her nervous. The Mother was about as supreme a deity one could have in this odd, shapeless world. She controlled everything with her will alone, and those who questioned her risked being banished to the Stream. But was that such a punishment, the Little One often found herself wondering, to be returned to the world of the living? There certainly was more freedom there. More danger, but more freedom. Was it a worthy sacrifice for safety?  
  
The Mother glittered and glowed in the spiraling void of pastel colors, then finally spoke. This was the same voice the Little One had heard often as a living being, but now the words were clear. She wondered if she liked it better when she could simply hear the murmurings and singing.  
  
"Little One, you have a mission."  
  
"A mission, Mother?"  
  
"Yes. As you know, I have kept you here despite your wish to join the Stream and be reborn upon the living plane. Yes, I know how you long for it, even more than yourself. However, we had to wait on your rebirth until it was the right time. This time has come."  
  
"I'm to be... reborn?"  
  
"No, child, not in the true sense of the word. You shall return to the world of the living and coexist with another. You shall share a physical body, but your consciences shall remain separate."  
  
The Little One simply hovered, unable to free the words that were fighting to be spoken. The chattering of the audience of souls swelled in this silence, discussing how they'd never heard anything like this before. Once the volume reached an intolerable degree, the Little One pried her mouth open.  
  
"Why?"  
  
Silence. The blue souls drifted back from the Little One, whispering in scandalized voices. The Mother, however, glimmered and seemed to soften a bit, turning a warm color of orange. "I cannot tell you, Little One, as even I don't have an explanation. Time and destiny are odd creatures; none can predict their actions for sure. However, I do sense a disturbance in the balance of the living world. If you would correct this, even with your mixed ancestry, I would allow you to ascend."  
  
"The Promised Land..." the Little One murmured, unsure of how to take this information. She would like to exist among her kind, the deceased Cetra. To see her real mother and learn all about the now deceased race that erected the Ancient City...  
  
"Your will is mine, Mother. When will I be departing?"  
  
"Spend your last night in your garden, Little One. You shall leave when the light returns to the living world." 


End file.
